Could An Oreo-Themed Hotel Be On Its Way To Manhattan?

A food-lover's paradise...too bad they'll have to walk allll the way from their hotel to get here

Someone please tell us how we missed this bit of Manhattan hotel madness news: Chelsea Market, which houses over a dozen of Manhattan's most beloved food vendors (Amy's Bread, Fat Witch Bakery, Jacques Torres Chocolates, Ronnybrook Dairy, The Lobster Place, among others) was for a while being considered as the site of a new hotel. However, it now looks like those plans may take a while to come to fruition, if ever.

Jamestown Properties, the building developer, wanted to celebrate the former Nabisco factory's history as the birthplace of the Oreo 100 years ago by adding two new towers onto the complex, one of which was slated to be a hotel. And while that expansion might still totally happen, it might be offices, rather than a cookie-themed hotel, that go up. Boo!

Sure enough, DNAinfo reported back in April that there were indeed plans for a nine-story hotel on the 9th Avenue side of Chelsea Market, but that locals vehemently pooh-poohed the project, favoring either office space instead, or simply no construction at all.

AJC, the expansion would help New York compete as a viable destination for high-tech companies to set up offices (Google and the Food Network already have headquarters here).

But neighborhood preservationists argue the new twin structures would detract from the building's reputation as "an icon of adaptive reuse." And it's true: part of the market's appeal is its well-preserved factory aesthetic (with plenty of exposed brick and pipes poking out of the walls).

The opponents also argue that another hotel would be unnecessary in this neighborhood, as it's already inundated with trendy places like The Standard, The Gansevoort, The Maritime, and Dream Downtown. Well, we can't argue with that either.

For what it's worth, our hope was that the developers would be able to build something a little less trendy and exclusive than those hotels, and, while still sticking to the cookie theme, something that would be nightclub-free, and manage to keep rates reasonably low. Is that too much to ask?

What are your thoughts on a Chelsea Market hotel? Would you stay here, or just pick from one of the other trendy spots in the neighborhood? Let us know in the comments below!